The Study Guide has been designed to help individual readers apply the book to their own lives and assist the process of moving from theory to practice.

It has also been written to enable couples to work through Reset (for men) and Refresh (for women) in tandem. Tomorrow, I’ll be publishing a separate Study Guide for Refresh that reflects the differences between the male and female experience of stress, anxiety, burnout, depression, etc. However, both the books and the Study Guides have been written to help couples work through them together. The handful of Study guide questions that are slightly different for Reset and Refresh are marked by an asterisk (*).

The Study Guides for both Reset and Refresh have also been composed to facilitate group discussion of the material. Again, this could be done in separate men’s and women’s groups or together.

I hope the timing of the Study Guide, coinciding with the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one, will encourage many to “reset” their lives and make 2018 more grace-paced than race-paced.

There is no copyright on the Study Guide, so print and photocopy as many as you need.

How to Read Jonathan Edwards“The first point to get clear in our minds is not how to read Jonathan Edwards but why. And here is why. He turns our postcard views of Christ and the beauty of authentic Christian living into an experience of the real thing. What we had only smelled we now see. What we heard others call magnificent and considered overstatement we now see as magnificent and recognize as understatement.”

According a new analysis of life satisfaction from the National Bureau of Economic Research, which encompasses seven massive surveys and 1.3 million randomly sampled people from 51 countries, rock bottom is somewhere around the early 50s for most folks. On the other hand, people report being pretty happy in their early 20s and their 60s once retirement kicks in.

The emphasis of theological debate has shifted again. And it threatens once more to divide churches, families, and even networks and coalitions forged in previous generations. The topics that generate the most controversy now concern public theology—how we apply the Bible to contemporary ethics. How does our faith testify that it is genuine? How does it lead us to regard and love our neighbor? How does it shape our view of systems and patterns of behavior, deeply ingrained and often denied by people in power?

I’ve noticed that female students who are considering a degree in biblical counseling, especially at the graduate level, are facing a dilemma. For some women, a degree in biblical counseling is not necessary for their job, but they want to gain more education for personal reasons or to complement their ministry skills. For most women, however, the prospect of finding a job is an important part of the equation in deciding on a degree.

Keys to a Fruitful—Not Busy—New Year“As we head into 2018, could it be that doing less is actually doing more? Instead of trying to prove that you are not lazy, abide in the Lord, work from a place of rest and trust. We have nothing to prove, orly a God to serve, who loves us as His children and desires to see us live fruitful not busy lives.”

“Although the empirical story of religion and domestic violence looks good for practicing believers, it’s much less rosy for others. My research suggests that the most violent husbands in America are nominal evangelical Protestants who attend church infrequently or not at all.”

As I thought later on these things, I could not but wonder at the fact that, days before my illness, I had finished a book on the prayers of the Bible, with a meditation on a prayer for every day of the year, and yet could not remember one of them! It was my faithful Savior who chose the Scripture prayer I needed in a moment when my life-time of memory of that very Scripture had apparently vanished from the scene. And this proved that his love never fails, and his promise ever stands, for he who keeps Israel “will neither slumber nor sleep.” When all you who are in Christ are at your most vulnerable, “he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore” (Ps. 121:4, 7-8).

Is the Pope right about the Lord’s Prayer?“Nevertheless, it is bad translation and bad discipleship to deny the meaning of biblical words simply because they don’t line up with human estimations of the way God ought to behave. In this case, it is hermeneutical malpractice to change the translation in an attempt to force God’s revelation onto a procrustean bed.”

New Book

I still remember the first time I heard a recording of a John Murray sermon and its impact upon me. I was a young Christian with a growing sense of God’s call to preach. This sermon was the clincher. Never before had I encountered such a unique combination of careful exegesis, profound theology, fresh insight, clear expression, and spiritual application. It inspired me with a vision of how glorious Reformed, experiential preaching could be. May this beautiful collection of Murray’s sermons touch and motivate a new generation of preachers and revive those who have lost sight of their high calling.

]]>One thing that’s always frustrated me about pictorial kids’ books is how awful the illustrations usually are. Christian books for kids are among the most disappointing. Some of them look as if I was the artist; others are just really cheesy cartoons.

Thankfully that’s all about to change with a new series of board books from the Banner of Truth written by Rebecca Vandoodewaard and illustrated by Blair Bailie. The first three are:

“I am working with these two authors because Bavinck (of older theologians) is especially detailed when it comes to immutability, and because Frame (of more recent theologians) is so widely read and respected….While my sympathies lie with Bavinck, I’m going to refrain from arguing one view over another. Instead I hope to fairly represent both theologians, noting where they agree and disagree.”

“I had a seminary professor once say, “You have to begin in Nashville before you head to Jerusalem.” His point was that if you do not meet listeners where they are and engage them where they live, you will have a hard time getting them to the truths of the Bible, and more particularly, to the relevance of the cross of Christ for their lives.

The introduction of the message is what helps listeners know where you are going and whether or not they want to go with you. In this regard, the first five minutes of your message may be the most important of all of them. In light of that, I want to give you two areas to focus on as you prepare and deliver your sermons.”

“I was recently asked to attend a ‘Transforming Scotland’ event in order to present my opinion on the state of Scottish Christianity and what we can do to reverse its current decline. I was asked to speak to a room full of church leaders from my scheme perspective. Here is a summary of what I said.”

The worst gift to give a middle-school student“This Christmas thousands of middle school students are going to get a gift under their tree or in their stocking, and it is going to wreck their lives. The worst gift you can give your middle-school student is… A smart phone.”

What Expository Preaching Is Not“Here are fifteen myths about expository preaching that should be exposed to help the preacher rightly understand and faithfully practice expository preaching.”

Is There a Place at the Table for Leaders with Mental Illness?“I think my pastor friend could have sat down with the church leaders and talked about his condition. I challenged him on that point and he said that probably the next church opportunity will never come if people know that he struggles with bipolar illness. I don’t want to agree. There’s room in the church for people with chronic illness. Not only room, but a place at the table.”

]]>Ever experienced the agony of watching a respected leader gradually lose the skills and abilities that were essential to their rise—especially the ability to read other people? Over at the Atlantic, in Power Causes Brain Damage, Jerry Useem highlights a number of stories demonstrating this fatal loss in business contexts and the horrendous consequences that followed. There’s much for churches and Christian institutions to learn here too.

Useem quotes the historian Henry Adams who described power as “a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.” That observation from history has now been backed up scientifically by Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley, who found that people who gained power “acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.”

Another scientist put the heads of the powerful and the not-so-powerful under a transcranial-magnetic-stimulation machine, and found that power, in fact, impairs a specific neural process, “mirroring,” that may be a cornerstone of empathy. This is what Keltner has termed the “power paradox”: Once we have power, we lose some of the capacities we needed to gain it in the first place.

Susan Fiske, a Princeton psychology professor, explains that “power lessens the need for a nuanced read of people, since it gives us command of resources we once had to cajole from others.”

Lord David Owen, a British neurologist turned parliamentarian who served as British foreign secretary founded an organization called Daedalus Trust to study and prevent “Hubris syndrome,” which is defined as a disorder of the possession of power, particularly power which has been associated with overwhelming success, held for a period of years and with minimal constraint on the leader.” Its 14 clinical features include: manifest contempt for others, loss of contact with reality, restless or reckless actions, and excessive self-confidence.

We’re seeing the fruits of that all around us in the daily headlines about Hollywood, the media, politics, sport, and even the Church.

What can be done? One suggestion is to encourage the leader to remember when he was powerless. Another suggestion is to watch documentaries about ordinary people. Politicians are advised to read constituents letters. Another more likely remedy is a good wife (or husband), as illustrated in Winston’s Churchill’s wife who once wrote to him:

“My Darling Winston. I must confess that I have noticed a deterioration in your manner; & you are not as kind as you used to be.” Written on the day Hitler entered Paris, torn up, then sent anyway, the letter was not a complaint but an alert: Someone had confided to her, she wrote, that Churchill had been acting “so contemptuous” toward subordinates in meetings that “no ideas, good or bad, will be forthcoming”—with the attendant danger that “you won’t get the best results.”

Obviously, as Christians, we would trace this problem to heart damage—specifically to the heart sins of pride and vanity—and our solutions would also involve repentance and faith. However, this research reminds us of the physical consequences of sin, and how difficult it can be to undo. It also offers some common grace preventatives and remedies which may have some role in addressing hubris syndrome. The biggest preventatives though are to walk humbly with our God and to have someone in our lives who will have the courage to tell us the honest truth about ourselves.

To Recover from Burnout, Regain Your Sense of Control“It’s far better to adopt an ownership mindset, that sounds like this: Others may have contributed to my situation, but I have the ability to make choices that can improve my present and future. Thinking in this way gives you the license to choose, even in small ways, to take action to recharge and build momentum. Realizing you have autonomy opens up hope for the future.”

If You’re Feeling Too Frantic, Genuine Leisure Can Restore Your Soul“We need to create more time for what Pieper calls meaningful “non-activity.” We need to add pockets of leisure in our family lives, so we can fall more deeply in love with our world and each other. We need to protect our Sabbaths, our nights off, and our holidays. While the demands of work and technology seek to exert their dominance over our lives, we must also make a concerted effort to abide by the divine command: be still.”

Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, December 2017“The December issue of Tabletalk addresses the biblical-theological theme of the temple. The tabernacle and temple are prominent in old covenant worship and history. There is also extensive teaching on the temple in the Gospels, Hebrews, Revelation, and other New Testament books. A right understanding of the temple thus is key to a right understanding of the Bible. Regrettably, however, Christians often have a poor understanding of the temples’ significance and its fulfillment in Christ and His church. This issue considers various aspects of the tabernacle/temple, and what it tells us about Christ, the church, and salvation.”

]]>Travel with Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary on a 15-day study tour and cruise featuring Switzerland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

Highlights include majestic alpine scenery, uniquely Puritan and Reformed historical sites, a week-long cruise on the lovely Rhine River, and a stay in Dordrecht to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Synod of Dordrecht (Dordt).

]]>As many seminary students read this blog and perhaps the odd professor or two, here are some articles I’ve accumulated over recent months about Seminary education. Some of these links originally appeared on Charles Savelle’s excellent blog Bible Exposition.